The present invention relates to a device for atraumatic access to the blood circuit. More particularly, the device comprises an implantable device for percutaneous removal of blood and a mechanism for controlling the flow of blood. The device makes it possible to treat, as often as necessary, an extra-corporal circulation of the blood, for example by an apparatus intended to compensate poor functioning of the kidneys.
Several devices for atraumatic access to the blood circuit are already known and in use, including devices similar to the present invention, having a rigid, biologically compatible, percutaneous body. For example, the prior art discloses devices like the present invention, having a central tubular segment which intersects and connects with the midpoint of another tubular segment, thereby bisecting the other tubular segment into two lateral segments.
The two lateral segments are each connected to an artificial line which is compatible with blood, and capable of being sutured onto an artery or a vein so as to form an arterio-venous shunt constantly traversed by a flow of blood.
The central segment of the T, which passes through the skin of the patient, comprises one or more obturation parts and a means for attaching a removable taking head. The removable head is typically connected to the circuit outside of the patient's body, and is capable of connecting at least one taking line and one reinjection line within the removable head with an internal blood circuit.
Like the present invention, previously known devices have shown blood taking and reinjection lines borne by a removable head and positioned so that an arterio-venous shunt with an internal blood circuit is achieved. The shunt is achieved either through an obturation part contained within the central segment, which passes through the skin, or by a passage in the axial direction through an obturation part and then through taking and reinjection lines.
One object of the present invention is to provide a device having taking and reinjection lines borne by a removable head which may be connected to an arterio-venous shunt by a simultaneous rotation of a removable head and an obturation part.
The atraumatic access devices disclosed by the prior art suffer from one or more of the following principal drawbacks:
Difficulty in applying disinfectant to complex obturation parts during cleaning procedures;
Low blood flow rates;
Complex methods and complicated tools needed for connecting and disconnecting the removable head, so that the patient is normally incapable of utilizing the device correctly with one hand;
Poor external bonding between the skin and the central segment of the device, creating a risk of microbial penetration;
Considerable mechanical stress placed upon the elastomer parts.